Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-02-08

forced their way farther up the abatis, then
wavered and fell back once more.
\ curious fact added to the complications
of the fight at Donelson The Confederate
forces were largely uniformed in brown Jeans
The dead leaves of the scrub oak were almost
the exact color of this cloth The Federal
forces, therefore, in climbing the abatis, could
not tell what was leaves and what was Con
federete soldiers till line of fire in their faces
told them the difference.
The third time Morrison's brigade stormed
the heights This time they climbed quite to
the rifle pits The line in front Of them was
one sheet of fire, awful and deadly. Just
then a musket ball struck Col Morrison in the
hip. The future Illinois political leader reeled
in his saddle and then fell to the ground That
ended the desperate assault, and Maney's bat
terry remained untaken.
Another of the curious incidents of war,
and sad one, happened here The flashe~,
from the guns set fire to the thickly cluster
ing dead leaves. They famed up like dry
straw, consuming the dead, dying and
wounded soldiers who lay about i'll some spots
as thickly us the leaves themselves A con
siderable number of the helpless ones were
bul It1l " ut1tu. tyll. EltDlluH. WHO nttI QIS-
tinguished himself at Fort Henry, was in
command of the Confe,ierates at Maney's bat
terry. His men leaped over in front of their
works after the assault, and saved such as
they could
So the night of Thursday. the 18th. came
and wore away. Up to the arrival of Lew
Wallace, on Friday, the Federal forces en-
gagged numbered only l5,0o0 men. The enemy
did not know it, but they were without sup
plies The roads were too heavy 10 transport
food and munitions, and these had been sent
around by water. The morning of the 18th
the Union soldiers were absolutely without
food
During the night storm of snow and sleet
came on. 1t was terrible. The men had not
Jared to sleep during the night They could
not build fires, for these would have been
merely so many targets for mIlsketry and ar
tillery from the fort. There were no shelter
tents for them Dawn found them numb and
stiff with the cold, their clothing wet through
to the skin and frozen on their backs. Col
Crafts J Wright, Thirteenth Missouri, sat
upon a log wrapped in his blanket till O'CLOCK
III the morning
So the Federal soldiers stood the nigh,
through At dawn the light began to shint
upon bitterly cold day Fires were built
toward the rear then and companies, in turn
relieving one another, went back and thawet
their frozen garments and made coffee
But they had no food not bite. Theil
emily breakfast was coffee, and thus they made
ready TO lace the dav
Ept. tho in, bn fort ~ troc mo-
a whit more comfortable. They lay upor
their arms all night in the trenches. AnC
vet nobody on either side was disheartened
The Confederate soldiers were full of figh
and enthusiasm. At noon the Federal Gen
Lew Wallace and his Third division of min
gled veterans and raw recruits arrived int,
camp i'll the center with cheers and song
| and bugles sounding Gen. Wallace rod,
Immediately to Grants headquarters anC
dlned with him on crackers and coffee. Tn
general was nearly as badly off as his men.
1t was this day that the interchange o
courtesies between the feet and the fort tool
place.
Meantime there was not much fighting Oh
land. Requirements were arriving fo
Grant, and were being posted.
Grant 5 troops were distributed over lin
nearly four miles long. His own head
| quarters were at the log house of Mrs. Crisp
two miles from Dover, at the head of Hick
man creek. 1t was little to the left of tn
center of his army. and between the division
| of Lew Wallace and Gen. C. F. Smith
So having arranged matters to suit him
| Grant sat down in the midst of his blue ores
cent of soldiers to starve out Fort Doneson
On their part, the Confederate generals in
side the fort were quite aware of their peril
The night of the 18th Gems. Floyd, Pillow
and Buckner held council and resolved t.
cut their way out of the fort through tn
| Federal lines next morning. ZEN thousan,
troops were set apart for this grand sortie
| The Confederates too had been re-enforcet
Brig. Gen. Floyd was the last to arrive, o.
the morning Of the 18th, with 1900 men